The agitation for the legalisation of Cannabis Sativa cannot
succeed in Nigeria because the proliferation of illicit drugs often leads to
crime, chaos and conflict, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has
explained.
In a statement issued on Friday by the spokesperson of the
NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Brig. General
Mohammed Bubba Marwa (retd.), made this statement as a guest speaker at the
2021 Ulefunta annual public lecture organised by the Deji of Akure Kingdom, His
Imperial Majesty, Oba Aladetoyinbo Aladelusi and chaired by a former Secretary
to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae.
Marwa said, “The proliferation of illicit drugs often
engenders a pattern of crime, chaos and conflict. In the advanced world, it is
the driver of the high crime rate and violent killings in the inner cities. In
developing or third world countries, it is the escalator of strife, pogroms and
civil war, and has played a big role in countries torn to pieces by tribal war,
such as it is playing in Syria, which has become the hotbed of Captagon, and
Afghanistan, which controls the opium trade.
“We have seen narco-terrorism in countries like Colombia and
Mexico where drug cartels are a law unto themselves and are as powerful, if not
more powerful, than the state. So, there are real cases, not scenarios, of
where and how illicit substances played a role in a society’s rapid descent
into chaos and teetering on the brink of a failed state.
“So the pertinent question for us today is: Have drugs
played any role in the festering insecurity in Nigeria? The answer is yes. Of
this, we have ample evidence.”
Marwa, represented by his Special Adviser on National Drug
Control Master Plan, Otunba Lanre Ipinmisho, stated that considering the
intractable burden of insecurity facing the country, “We do not have the luxury
of allowing a narcotic economy to take root and thrive in our society. Africa,
nay, Nigeria has enough problems without adding the burden of narco-terrorism.”
He said, “Of all the known illicit substances, Cannabis
Sativa is the only one that is native to Nigeria and it is the most abused of
all illicit drugs, and from the findings of the National Drug Survey of 2018,
cannabis is becoming a national albatross.”
While warning that the population of Nigerians hooked on
cannabis alone was more than the population of countries like Portugal, Greece
or the Republic of Benin, he said that as such Nigeria could not afford to toy
with the grim reality of the danger of legalizing cannabis when all the needed
infrastructure to monitor and control it are still far from being in place.
“Where cannabis is concerned, we should not by any argument
allow ourselves to become the proverbial fool that rushed in where angels fear
to tread. Countries like Canada, which are pro-cannabis have strong and
efficient institutions that are way ahead of ours by long mileages.
“Given the reality of our law enforcement, controlled
cultivation of cannabis is a mirage. Aren’t pharmaceutical opioids controlled?
Tramadol, codeine, Rohypnol, Benzopam, are all controlled, yet, their
trafficking and abuse is causing us unquantifiable human and economic loss.
“And for those who point at the inherent economic benefit
that could accrue from the legalisation of its cultivation, following our
reality, would you be comfortable, if by tomorrow, your 13-year-old son can easily
access marijuana, or you find some wraps of weed in his pocket, or you learnt
that someone has introduced your 16-year-old daughter to smoking cannabis under
the pretext that it has medicinal value?
“Our individual answer to that question will give us a
public opinion of where we should stand as a country in the cannabis debate,”
he said.
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